Day: October 24, 2011

The Switch? A movie called The Switch staring Jason Bateman? That just sounds like The Change-Up, based only on titles. But apparently this is a RomCom with Jennifer Aniston, not a Comedy with Ryan Reynolds. And definitely not a romantic comedy with Ryan Reynolds!

“Boop.”

In this story, Bateman and Aniston are friends. Aniston wants to get a sperm donor (definitely not Bateman) and be a single mom, instead of waiting for Mr. Right. She decides on Patrick Wilson, because he is the epitome of a male human being. He is married, but they need the cash. Well, at the donor party, Bateman gets trashed drunk switches the semen with his own (The Switch is a better movie title than Semen Switch…maybe) and only tells fucking Jeff Goldbloom.

Many years later, he realizes that the kid is his own, because the kid is nerdy, hypochondriac, and hates sports. The opposite of Patrick Wilson. Plus he got lice once!

“No kid of mine has lice or hates sports!”

So the movie is mostly just Bateman trying to connect with his donor kid, and figure out a way to tell Aniston without you know, sounding like a complete asshole.

The chemistry between Aniston and Bateman is really well done. Goldbloom does a good job of acting like a boss who always seems to be drunk (in my mind). And Patrick Wilson does a good job of freaking out about the nerdy kid and having a midlife crisis. But it is only somewhat comedic, and entirely predictable. So overall just okay.

The Joneses, if not being a title hard to say, is a look of post apocalyptic life in the suburbs.

Or at least that is what I assume. I expect the apocalypse to be a rather tame event.

The Joneses are a new family that move to a upper rich suburban neighborhood. But not only that, they are pretty darn cool. They have the latest gadgets and gizmos, cars and purses, technology and style. Steve Jones, the dad lead by David Duchovny is making so many new friends. But is something not the way it should be?!

Besides Duchovny not banging everything in site?

It turns out that everything is a lie. In a pseudo Stepford Wives / Truman Show manner, they are merely salesmen and women pretending to be a happy family in order to sell product. They work for a bigger company that just works on ad sales, so when they have new awesome things and get other people to buy them, they earn more money for the company. Demi Moore, the wife, is actually the head of the unit and Duchovny is just a new guy. Their children are played by (I can say that in both ways) Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth.

So yes, the whole point of the movie is more or less about exploiting the rich with a more subliminal advertising method. But it is definitely better than that. Duchovny isn’t as adapted to the acting/tricking lifestyle, so he develops real relationships with people, like his “Wife” and Gary Cole, his neighbor.

Who recently made it big selling suspenders after his office burned down.

The ending unfortunately is way too preachy, and you can already tell where it is going. Not necessarily the events, but what the preachiness is about. It felt super forced. It had a happier ending, I guess. But definitely didn’t like it yelling at me in the process.